The MexicoBlog of the CIP Americas Program monitors and analyzes international press on Mexico with a focus on the US-backed War on Drugs in Mexico and the struggle in Mexico to strengthen the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights. Relevant political developments in both countries are also covered.

Jun 11, 2013

Democratic Revolt Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Fast Track

The Americas MexicoBlog and Americas Updater has been following TPP negotiations, what it means for Latin America and anti-TPP organizing closely, after twenty years of looking at the disastrous results of NAFTA. This is encouraging news, sent by the Citizens Trade Campaign. Obama's nominee for US Trade Representative, Michael Froman--a typical product of the revolving door between private companies and the government agencies charged with overseeing them for the public good--is a former investment manager at Citigroup and has been accused of tax avoidance.

No doubt about it, the 2008 candidate Obama who promised to renegotiate NAFTA and design trade deals to promote decent jobs and relief for small businesses has vanished into thin air. Now it's up to citizen, labor and environmental groups to find allies in and outside Congress to stop the spread of these job-killing Free Trade Agreements. And it looks like they're making some headway. But one of the big problems we have as progressive policy analysts, is finding out what is in the TPP. Government negotiaters not only think they can deal away our interests, but they think they can do it while keeping us uninformed and silenced. If anyone has any new inside information on the negotiations and the current draft, please send it on. info@cipamericas.org

Over Two-Thirds of Democratic House Freshmen Tell Party Leadership They Oppose Transferring Their Constitutional Trade Authority to the President

Washington,
DC — More than two-thirds of Democratic freshmen in the U.S. House of
Representatives expressed serious reservations today about the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP FTA) negotiations
and the prospect of delegating Fast Track "trade promotion authority" to the President. They
voiced their concerns in a letter sent to House Democratic Leader Nancy
Pelosi and Ranking Ways and Means Member Sander Levin that was
spearheaded by Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan and signed by 35 other
House freshmen.

"The
administration has yet to release draft texts after more than three
years of negotiations, and the few TPP FTA texts that have leaked reveal
serious problems," the letter reads. "Thus, we are especially
concerned about any action that would transfer Congress's exclusive
Constitutional trade authority to the president."

The
TPP is poised to become the largest Free Trade Agreement in U.S.
history. The twelve countries currently involved — the United States,
Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand,
Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — already cover approximately 40% of the
global economy, and the TPP also includes a "docking mechanism" that
could enable other countries to join over time. The TPP's seventeenth
major round of negotiations concluded in Lima, Peru last month, and
negotiators are racing to complete their work by an October deadline set
by President Barack Obama and others.

Under
Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress possesses
exclusive authority to determine the terms of international trade
agreements, but the Obama administration wants Congress to transfer that
authority to the executive through a new delegation of Fast Track
"trade promotion authority." The President's nominee for U.S. Trade
Representative, Michael Froman, reiterated that request during his
Senate confirmation hearing last Thursday.

Fast
Track delegates Congress' constitutional trade authority to the
executive branch, allowing negotiators to determine the contents of
trade agreement and to sign them before Congress has a vote on the
matter. The rarely-used procedure also allows trade agreements to
circumvent ordinary Congressional review, with the White House writing
lengthy implementing legislation that is not amendable in committee or
on the floor and must be voted on within 90 days of submission, leaving
Congress with only take-it-or-leave-it approval of a completed package
that, in the case of the TPP, is expected to be at least hundreds of
pages long and cover some 29 separate chapters, affecting everything
from food safety standards and medicine patents to energy regulations
and public procurement decisions.

"It's
encouraging that so many new Members of Congress recognize the problems
inherent with Fast Track, and are demanding a more meaningful role in
trade policymaking for themselves and their constituents," said Arthur
Stamoulis, executive director of Citizens Trade Campaign. "Congressman
Pocan and these other freshmen have demonstrated a real commitment to
creating fair trade agreements that promote job creation and economic
prosperity. That type of leadership is desperately needed if we're
going to stop letting big corporations ship our jobs overseas and dump
our wages and benefits overboard along the way."

A copy of the letter and its signatories follows:

The Honorable Sander M. Levin

Ranking Member

Ways and Means Committee

1106 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Cc: The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Dear Ranking Member Levin:

We
look forward to working with you to establish United States trade
policies that promote the creation of American jobs and support our
national economic interests while safeguarding Congress’s prerogatives
to determine what domestic policies best promote the public interest.

As
the economy continues to recover from the greatest financial crisis
since the Great Depression, we can all agree that we cannot afford to
have American production and American jobs sent offshore because of
unfair trade agreements that undermine our economic growth. When jobs
and production factories are offshored, American wages are lost,
American-made products decline, and our international interests are
compromised.

Job
offshoring was a major issue in the previous election that unites our
constituents - Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike. Polling
consistently shows that Americans oppose our past model of “trade”
agreements that facilitate offshoring, undermine Buy American policies,
and subject American laws to review by foreign tribunals empowered to
order payment of unlimited U.S. tax dollars to foreign firms that seek
to avoid playing by the same rules as U.S. firms.

Thus,
we write with serious concerns about both the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Free Trade Agreement (TPP FTA) now being negotiated by the Obama
administration and the prospect of Congress delegating wide swaths of
its Constitutional authority to regulate trade (Article 1, Section 8) to
the president through “Fast Track” or any other open-ended delegation
of “trade promotion” authority.

In
the last Congress, two-thirds of House Democrats joined together on a
letter to President Obama demanding access to the draft TPP FTA texts
and raising concerns about how the pact could internationally preempt
Congress’s domestic policymaking prerogatives. They wrote:

“Since
the United States will be obliged to bring existing and future U.S.
policies into compliance with the norms established in the TPP FTA, the
negotiations USTR is pursuing will create binding policies on future
Congresses in numerous areas. These could include those related to
labor, patent and copyright, land use, food, agriculture and product
standards, natural resources, the environment, professional licensing,
state-owned enterprises and government procurement policies, as well as
financial, healthcare, energy, telecommunications and other service
sector regulations.”

Unfortunately,
today TPP FTA talks continue in extreme secrecy. The administration has
yet to release draft texts after more than three years of negotiations,
and the few TPP FTA texts that have leaked reveal serious problems.
Thus, we are especially concerned about any action that would transfer
Congress’s exclusive constitutional trade authority to the president.

Congress
needs to work together to get American trade policy back on track - not
give away its authority to do so. Reducing our authority to ensure our
trade agreements serve the public interest will undermine our efforts
to create American jobs and to reform a misguided trade policy that has
devastated our manufacturing base through the offshoring of American
production and American jobs.

Indeed,
given the vast scope of today’s “trade” agreements, we do not believe
that a broad delegation of Congress’s constitutional trade authority is
generally appropriate. Negotiations on the TPP FTA delve deeply into
many non-trade matters under the authority of Congress and state
legislatures. If completed, the TPP FTA would lock in policies on these
non-trade matters that could not be altered without consent of all other
signatory countries. Thus, ensuring Congress has a robust role in the
formative aspects of trade agreements is vital.

We
are all deeply committed to creating jobs in our communities and across
the country. To do so effectively, we believe it is critical that
Congress maintains its authority to ensure American trade agreements are
a good deal for the American people.